1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to integrated circuits and more specifically to power usage estimation for integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
It may be desirable for some applications to have a real time estimate of power consumption of an integrated circuit or of a portion of an integrated circuit. Power consumption may be measured by measuring the amount of current being consumed. However such a method requires extra circuitry. Furthermore, it may not be possible to measure current consumption for a portion of an integrated circuit.
What is desirable is a system to provide a real time estimate of power consumption for at least a portion of a circuit.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates identical items unless otherwise noted.